Filii Ad Cor: Christmas Eve, Year X791
by CurlyQues
Summary: Five months after the unforgettable X791 Grand Magic Games, Rogue and Rufus have an unexpected encounter with an odd acquaintance... if you can even call her that. Digression from the original story, "Five Months After."


Every day was the same... and yet different.

Rogue Cheney would get up out of bed, throw on a pair of clean pants and a fresh shirt, and run out the door with Frosch, his little green Exceed. Sometimes, he'd meet up with a comrade from his guild—Sting and Lector, Yukino, Rufus—before heading out to take a mission, but it was more common for Rogue to take on solo jobs. He would walk, if at all possible, but trains were unavoidable sometimes. Rogue would complete his mission, go back to the guild, and go to bed.

His schedule hadn't changed at all. Every day, he did close to the exact same things. But still, everything had changed.

The guild was warmer, friendlier. Standing by the request board, getting a coffee from the Café Nova, even just walking out the door on the way to missions, Rogue got smiles, hellos, and goodbyes from his comrades. They would wish him luck, give him goofy grins, and invite him to eat lunch or dinner with them (most of the offers he politely refused). Recently, he realized, he had been friendlier himself. Sometimes, he even genuinely smiled back. He allowed himself to laugh more.

So now, even though it was just another day—well, couple of days—going on a mission to gather information on burglaries in a town called Blueport with Rufus, the trip felt more meaningful. This time last year, he would have been in it for the money. Now, he was working to not only support his guild, but to return the favor to the people that actually did the supporting—the regular, just-plain folks of Fiore—by helping _them_ out with their problems.

Fairy Tail truly was a wonderful guild. _Was_. He had known that even before they had disbanded, but now knew for sure what exactly made them so admirable… despite the destruction they caused to both the towns they "aided" and the liquor storages that one member in particular had enjoyed draining on a semi-weekly basis…

They were Fairy Tail's successors. Sabertooth had been the top guild in Fiore before, but they hadn't been able to hold a candle to what Fairy Tail had done. What was a guild without its heart, anyway? Now that Fairy Tail was _officially_ gone for good, he and his guildmates had to show the country that they had it in them to be as fantastical and yet humble as Fairy Tail had been. They had to fill the void.

It wasn't like Rogue disliked spending his Christmas Eve this way. Blueport was a Northern town, and despite the train ride being grueling as always, Frosch would enjoy seeing the snow that never seemed to stay around in West Martin. Rufus loved the ocean, too. And it was dark in the far Northern part of Fiore for most of the winter. Rogue loved the dark. He was a Shadow Dragon Slayer. It made sense.

In fact, the burglars had already been taken care of. The group of thieves might have amounted to something had they been left alone for a few months—petty crimes usually led to darker paths—but they were nothing to him and Rufus. Though he would be spending time away from most of his friends, he didn't want to spend his Christmas Eve and Day on that train. He and Rufus got along well. He could handle a few days here, and Frosch loved the snow. The mission had been worth it to the town, too. Now, they could have a peaceful Christmas.

"Frosch, stay off the ice!" Rufus' alarmed shout drew Rogue back to his senses. Frosch, his Exceed, was trying to paw at a few seagulls that were floating by on the ice—the cat _still_ didn't quite realize that he had a few pounds on the birds—and the ice protested sharply.

"Fro likes it here, the ocean is very nice,"

"Just don't get _too_ fond of it. The ocean isn't very nice to fall into this time of year…" Rufus scolded before turning back to Rogue. "Are you alright? You must've been pretty zoned-out not to notice Frosch."

"Just thinking about home," Rogue sighed. He could easily call his guild "home" now. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Understandable," Rufus nodded. A gust of wind nearly blew the blonde's hat off his head and ruffled his long hair. "The memories I have of the mayor being so happy… I don't regret coming now."

"I'm not really the type to celebrate this holiday, anyway…" Rogue muttered.

"You're not alone in that," Rufus grinned.

"Fro _loves_ Christmas!" the cat hopped from foot to foot, beaming. "Just look at all the colors!"

"Hey, I hear that a lot of the fishermen around here decorate their boats this time of year," Rogue said. "Do you guys want to take the long way back to the hotel and go take a look at the harbor?"

Frosch wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to see more pretty Christmas lights, and Rufus wasn't about to try and contain the Exceed's joy. The three Sabertooth mages walked toward the docks. The snow that had been falling for a few hours crunched crisply beneath their feet. The night was young, but oh, she was beautiful, and Rogue Cheney knew his nights.

Rogue paused a second when another set of footsteps joined his, Rufus' and Frosch's. This pair was running—he could tell by how the steps scuffed more, and by how they hit the ground at shorter intervals. From what he could hear, the steps were running straight at Rufus and Frosch from an alleyway perpendicular to where the mage and cat were walking towards. Whoever was running towards the street they were walking on would collide with his friend in seconds. Rogue opened his mouth to warn Rufus, but it was too late.

A small person barreled out from behind the obscured wall of the alleyway, hit Rufus, and sent both people flying.

"Ah, what the—!" Rufus quickly recovered from getting the wind knocked out of him and sat up in the snow. Rogue offered the blonde his hand.

"Are you alright, Miss Fairy?" Frosch waddled up to Rufus' assailant, ignorant to whatever danger the "Miss Fairy" could possibly have been… wait… "Fairy"?

"She's from Fairy Tail?" Rufus asked the question before Rogue could.

"No, but she looks like a fairy, doesn't she?" the cat beamed.

"Frosch, get away from her," Rogue commanded. Why had this girl been running through the back alleys of Blueport? The situation was all too suspicious for Rogue to feel comfortable with watching his happy-go-lucky Exceed approach the stranger.

"You said… Frosch…?" the girl asked. She propped herself up on her left arm, still facing away from him and Rufus. Her light brown hair, though wispy, covered her face well enough.

"Don't you have a coat, Miss?" Rufus probed, ignoring her murmurings. Rogue realized that Frosch had called the girl a fairy because she had a delicate, thin build which was noticeable only because she was underdressed for the weather.

"No… I don't have a coat…" there was a slight tremor to her voice. "But… you're… Sabertooth?"

"Erm, that's right," Rufus affirmed.

"I should be going," the girl stiffly got up and started to walk away. She waved back over one shoulder, her movements awkward and jerky. "Sorry for b-bumping into you…"

"Hey, that's hardly a proper apology—!" Rogue reached out and grabbed the girl by her right arm. He spun her back around to face him and Rufus. Her face stopped him in his tracks.

The girl's enormous, blue eyes were wide. Her mouth hung slightly ajar in shock. It was the look of sheer terror in her eyes and the scar running down the entire right side of her face that made Rogue stop, though. He couldn't tell how old she was—something told him that she was older than fifteen, but the wide eyes almost made him think otherwise. She was trembling. Everything suddenly made sense, and Rogue hastily withdrew his hand.

"Sorry, sorry…" Rogue stammered. "We were just tracking down a bunch of thieves a few hours ago, so I—"

The brunette had already tugged away and was running back down the alley from which she came by that point, though.

"Hey, wait!" Rufus called after her.

"Leave her alone," Rogue sighed. "She was terrified. Probably had a bad run in with some of our mages before July and still hates us because of it."

"She was still acting way too strangely for an ordinary person, though, even _before_ she knew we were Sabertooth mages… plus, I'm almost positive that she's a mage,"

"You sensed magic?"

"Jeez yes," the blonde snorted. "She's no wimpy little village girl. We shouldn't let this slide so soon after taking out the robbers, either. Can you catch up to her, or should I…?"

"Piece of cake," Rogue melted into the shadows—there was no shortage of _those_ at night—and chased after the girl. She was thirty feet ahead of him and running at an impressive clip. Rogue was still on top of her within a few seconds, though. The night was _his_ domain. The mage reached out, grabbed both of the girl's shoulders, and steered her into a wall, where he flipped her and forced her back up against the brick. The girl's eyes were still as wide as they had been. The expression of pure horror still lingered.

"Well, we've _got_ to ask questions now that you tried to run away," Rogue complained to her, trying to make light of the awkward situation. "I tried to tell you earlier…"

"L-let go of me," the girl stammered. She wasn't resisting, exactly, but she _was_ trying to get as far away from him as possible, twisting her neck so her head at least stretched beyond the box created by his arms that pressed against the brick on either side of her shoulders. "My friends d-d-don't like it when p-people get this close to me…"

"And your friends aren't the ones we put in jail for theft a couple of hours ago?" Rufus asked, having finally caught up to Rogue. Frosch lagged behind and gave Rogue a strange look.

"What's your name?" Rogue asked. The girl tried to inch down the wall, but Rogue grabbed the fabric of her shirt and pulled her to her feet.

"I… I shouldn't…" the girl shook her head.

"It's just your _name_ —"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!" a shrill voice shouted. Rogue's head whipped to his right and the girl tried once again to twist away from him, only to realize that he had her pinned by her shoulders. A little girl—Rogue guessed her to be around ten years old—ran into the alley with a trashcan lid in hand. She would have smacked Rogue senseless with it had Rufus not been there to grab the metal disc first.

"Who are _you_?" Rufus asked. The little girl shook her head and her red curls bounced. She stuck her tongue out at Rufus and pulled down her left lower eyelid.

"None of your beeswax!" she snapped. "And besides, I wouldn't tell _you_ , anyway! Get your paws off of her!"

"But she's acting really suspicious… as are you…" Rogue pointed out. "You didn't need to try and hit me with the trashcan lid…"

"You guys!" another feminine voice complained. "Rita's overly protective as it is, so could you two please keep from running off whenever I turn my back on you for five seconds—?"

A girl that looked slightly older than the other two casually strolled into the alley and stopped cold when she realized what was going on. Rufus and Rogue shifted uncomfortably.

"If you could take your hands off of Jeanette, that'd be much appreciated," the older girl frowned.

"I was trying to be all secretive, no fair…" the redhead sulked.

"With Jeanette trapped like that?" the older girl grimaced.

"Makes it more fun…" the younger girl took in the elder's expression. "Well… realistic…"

"Oh, I understand," the older girl nodded sagely and her fluffy, long pink hair bobbed. Rogue hesitantly stepped back from the brunette—Jeanette, if he had heard correctly. Jeanette stumbled over to her friends and hid behind the oldest girl.

"So… if I may, who are you three?" Rufus asked. "I can sense that you're all mages…"

"Ah, you don't recognize us…" the redhead looked crushed. "Even though we hung out at the Daimatou Enbu…"

Oh.

 _Oh._

These three girls were the same ones that had wandered into their team's seating area on the first day of the Grand Magic Games. At the time, Rogue had just brushed them off as being obnoxious and ignored them best he could. He glanced over at Rufus; the blonde's expression showed that he shared similar sentiments. Team Sabertooth had been awfully cold toward the three girls at the time, which was probably why Jeanette had been so scared of him at first.

"Then… it's Holly, right?" Rufus asked the younger girl, who scowled at him. The blonde turned to the oldest girl. "And you're Mattie. I remember now. Fancy seeing you here."

"Hmm." Mattie forced a smile. "Not the best reunion, is it?"

"I'll say!" Holly giggled. "Why didn't you say anything to them, Jeanette?"

"I… got scared…" Jeanette stared down at her boots and wrung out her hands in front of her chest.

"Well, good thing you forgot your coat," Mattie grumbled. "We wouldn't have gone after you otherwise."

"I-I'm sorry…" the brunette, Jeanette, peeked out from behind Mattie's shoulder at Rogue and Rufus.

"…it's alright…" Rufus nodded. "We probably overreacted as it is."

"Sorry for scaring Miss Fairy like that… Frosch loves to meet new people, though!" the Exceed beamed. "Can we go look at the pretty boats now?"

"Sure thing, Frosch," Rogue smiled.

"…what pretty boats?" Mattie asked. Rogue turned back to the three girls and nearly took a step back when he saw Mattie's face. The girl was grinning, her slightly gapped teeth showing as her lips pulled up to lift her freckled cheeks. Her blue eyes sparkled… almost in a _devious_ way.

"Umm… the fishermen around here decorate their boats for the holidays, as they can't really send them out to sea with the water being frozen now and all…" Rufus stammered, obviously having caught onto the weird display Mattie was putting on. Was the girl really _this_ excited about _boats_?

"Ooh, I absolutely _love_ Christmas!" Mattie clapped her hands together in front of her chest and looked to Holly, the redhead. "We should go look, shouldn't we? I mean, this town looks like a Christmas card already! And the boats are decorated, too? Isn't that sweet?"

"We could go together!" Frosch squeaked delightedly.

"Rita… she told us to give Jeanette her coat…" Holly furrowed her brow, lost in thought. After a second, her face lit up again. "…but she never told us to come _back_ straightaway, right?"

"Absolutely!" Mattie snickered. "A look won't kill us. It's Christmas, for crying out loud!"

"I'm done here," Jeanette spoke up. "And… well… I'd rather go back to the shop…"

"Are you going to be fine on your own?" Mattie asked.

"I can walk her back," Rogue suggested. "I don't know the way, but there's safety in numbers."

"Good!" Mattie looked almost smug. "Now we all end up happy! Jeanette can go back to the guild, we can see the boats, and you can feel better about yourself after apologizing to her for your actions."

She hadn't even been _subtle_ about it. The fact that Mattie had seen right through Rogue's suggestion wasn't surprising, but the girl's bluntness certainly was. Plus, Rogue was aware that Mattie had pretty much written him out an apology invitation. The words were expected of him now. Jeanette put a hand to her cheek and shook her head in embarrassment.

"See you soon, Jeanette!"

"See you back at the hotel, Rogue,"

"Bye-bye, Rogue! Fro will tell you all about the pretty boats!"

The four mages left for the harbor, leaving Rogue alone with Jeanette. How exactly did one apologize for chasing a girl down and pinning her against the wall of an alleyway? Rogue had no idea. Jeanette seemed like she was incredibly shy, too. He'd definitely terrified her. Conversation would be painful. The brunette walked away and Rogue followed.

"Um, hey, I'm really sorry for attacking you," it was best to get the pain over with right away. It'd be like ripping a tuft of hair with chewing gum attached out of his scalp. "I shouldn't have overreacted like that. I scared you, didn't I? God, I feel terrible…"

"I-it's fine…" the girl stammered. Her words were clipped and short.

"We were taking out a group of thieves, and we weren't sure we'd taken them _all_ out, so…" Rogue trailed off. He was just making excuses for himself now, but Rogue felt Jeanette needed to know.

"I understand," Jeanette muttered. The two-word replies weren't reassuring. Rogue decided not to press on any further. After a few minutes of walking, Rogue got antsy. He could under most circumstances take the silence, but not with this girl. The scar was probably at fault for her expression, but the way it crawled down her cheek twisted her mouth into a permanent looking frown. He didn't necessarily want to call what he was feeling about her pity, as that just sounded condescending, but he at least wanted to make her look somewhat less miserable. Maybe conversation could fill that void.

"So… what do you guys do in Blueport? Do you live here all the time?" Rogue asked.

"We run a magic shop," Jeanette responded.

"Like… Mattie runs it?" Rogue pressed on. "Do you all work for one of your parents or something?"

"No, we work for Rita," Jeanette stated.

"Who's Rita?"

"She's our guild master, and we're an independent guild, but we don't do missions like your guild does. We mostly just run the shop and move from place to place every couple of years," Jeanette answered.

"You're merchants, then," Rogue guessed.

"Yes, but also mages,"

"You work with Rita as apprentices, then?"

"Yes," Jeanette nodded. She stopped and pointed down the street. "That's our shop there."

Rogue had to do a double-take. He didn't know for sure what he had been expecting, but he hadn't been expecting anything like _this_. The street that Jeanette pointed at was one of Blueport's shadier avenues. The apartments were all in desperate need of repair, though clearly still inhabited, judging by the lights hung outside a few of the windows. Sure enough, one of the double-decker apartments had a little sign out front that read " **OPEN FOR BUSINESS** " in black ink. The "shop" didn't have a name plate, though.

"You set up _here_?" Rogue gaped.

"The location isn't much," Jeanette admitted. "We set up in the rougher parts of towns, where there's more likely to be business, and help the people out with their problems."

"Why doesn't the shop have a name?" Rogue asked.

"Word mostly gets around through Blueport by word-of-mouth," Jeanette explained. "We don't have much of a need for a name, and we'd never be able to agree on a title, anyway."

"Impressive that you can bet by with all things considered," Rogue commented. Jeanette stiffened, and Rogue realized that the statement had come across as an insult.

"I should be going," Jeanette muttered under her breath. "You should head back to the boats. Rita doesn't like non-customers hanging around our shop."

"Sorry again for… well… all of that," Rogue stammered. "Maybe we'll meet again someday."

"…oh, we'll meet again…" Jeanette whispered under her breath.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Rogue asked. He, being a Dragonslayer, had heard every word, but he wasn't sure if she had spoken correctly. She didn't know for sure that they would be crossing paths again… right?

"Nothing," Jeanette frowned. "It was nothing."

"Merry Christmas, then," Rogue brushed off the comment.

"You too," the brunette nodded stiffly. She turned away from him and walked toward the shop. Rogue didn't want to leave until he was sure she was inside, though. After a couple of steps, Jeanette stopped and turned to stare at him. Rogue shrugged his shoulders. The girl frowned and continued on.

The door to the shop opened before Jeanette could reach for the doorknob. Warm light bled into the shadows of the shady avenue, and a young woman with jet black hair tied into a braid—older than Jeanette by at least five years, by the look of her—quickly ushered the smaller girl into the building. The older woman then glanced out into the street. Her eyes caught Rogue's.

This must have been Rita. Rita's eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she grimaced at Rogue. The woman huffed, took the " **OPEN FOR BUSINESS** " sign off of the door, and shut the door behind her. Rogue watched her pull a curtain over the window. The Sabertooth mage thought it was odd that Rita and Jeanette were so reserved while Holly and Mattie were so… open, but he didn't think too much about it.

The light on in the shop's entryway shut off, and Rogue knew it was time for him to head back to Rufus and Frosch. The shadow mage took his time and glanced at the scattered strings of Christmas lights. A cold wind blew in from the North, and for the first time, Rogue noticed the wind chimes.

Blueport had a local glassblower, didn't it? Maybe that was why there were so many of the glass ornaments. As Rogue was now in the rundown part of town, with nobody around, the sounds of metal hitting glass hundreds upon hundreds of times to create different tones that didn't even blend sounded eerie. Rogue could smell a storm coming in over the ocean. He needed to find Rufus and Frosch.

Rogue quickened his pace and didn't slow until he caught sight of Frosch and Rufus at the docks. Rufus, of course, had noticed him long before he had caught scent of the blonde, and was already smiling and waving at Rogue before he reached the edge of the dock.

"Did you have fun?" Rogue asked Rufus and mostly Frosch.

"Yes! The boats are so pretty!" Frosch grinned.

"Mattie and Holly left, then?" Rogue directed his question at Rufus.

"They said they'd miss the Catholic Church's service if they stayed any longer," Rufus answered. "How did your talk with Jeanette go?"

"I think it went fine," Rogue shrugged. "Did they Mattie or Holly tell you about their shop? They sell magic and provide help in the workers' district."

"They certainly did…" Rufus muttered. "They seem like an odd bunch, and I'm not sure I like the sound of their guild master."

"I think she just likes to make sure they're safe," Rogue frowned. Truth be told, he hadn't much liked the _look_ of Rita, either. "Jeanette made it sound like they were her apprentices."

"Should we be heading back?" Rufus asked. "The wind's picking up."

"I can smell a snowstorm coming in from the North," Rogue stated. "We should head back to the room before it gets here."

"Fair enough," Rufus grabbed his hat as yet another strong gust of wind blew in.

Rogue stared back at the town. Blueport was an odd town to set up in. Commonly, it had problems with rogue criminal organizations and petty thieves alike. As Blueport was in the far Northern edge of Fiore, there weren't many magical guilds around to protect it from harm. Blueport was also a summer tourist destination, which meant that it was absolutely dead in the winter, with many of its poorer summer employees stuck for the cold season barely able to pay their ways. Maybe that was why the magical aid shop had been set up here, though. He wasn't going to question it too much, as he wasn't going to question Rita's glare, or Jeanette's comment.

It was Christmas, after all. Worries could be abandoned for an evening without consequence.

* * *

 **All credits go to** _ **kushelirmel**_ **(deviantart) for the title image and Hiro Mashima for the original work.**

 **This is a side story to the original story, "Five Months After." It's a different play on Chapter 1, though it fits into the actual original story itself.**

 **Nothing in "Five Months After" has been disproved by canon yet.**


End file.
